I Am My Own Wife

Synopsis

Based on a true story, and inspired by interviews conducted by the playwright over several years, I Am My Own Wife tells the tale of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, a real-life German transvestite who managed to survive the Nazi onslaught as well as the following, repressive Communist regime.

Our Review:

11 November 2005

“Ich bin ein transvestit,” explains Charlotte von Mahlsdorf near the beginning of Doug Wright’s multi award-winning Broadway play performed by the multi award-winning Jefferson Mays.

Imagine a transvestite growing up in Weimar Germany and visions of a drag version of Marlene Deitrich in high heels slinking around sleazy cabaret bars probably spring to mind. But Charlotte, the female identity adopted in the 1930s by young Lothar Berfelde, cultivated the image of a rather staid country lass, wearing drab peasant skirts, stout walking shoes and a pearl necklace – apparently after being influenced by a childhood encounter with a lesbian auntie in jodhpurs.

In the same way the English learned to love Quentin Crisp, in frauline Charlotte, the Germans created a celebrity tranny granny of their own – an eccentric antiques collector who went on chat shows and turned into a national treasure before her death in 2002 aged 74, while the dusty von Mahlsdorf furniture museum in East ...

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Latest User Review

195.82.123.181) - 29 November 2005:

I was really entertained and moved by this. The play is really more of a patchwork than a coherent script but it is frequently fascinating: you just couldn't make Charlotte's life up! There is also a beautifully judged tightrope walked between comedy and tragedy. Jefferson Mays's extraordinary performance is one of the best things in London theatre at the moment, never once tipping over into caricature. Also, the set is a work of art, being a thing of great beauty in itself and an elegant comment on the hero/heroine's multi-faceted life. I hope it's as big a hit here as it was in NY....

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